2 underground chambers found near Mysore Palace

MYSORE: Civic officers stumbled across two deep, underground chambers near Mysore Palace during civil work on Monday.
They believe the square concrete structures had been created by the Maharajas of Mysore to store either weapons, water or valuables and there could be more such chambers. They were found in the middle of a road in front of Gun House, the armoury of the Maharajas.
Officers and historians of the department of heritage, archaeology and museums were summoned to inspect the chambers. Mysore City Corporation ward-1 corporator BV Manjunath said they first found a hole in the middle of the road between Shivarathreshwara Circle and Kushti Akada in May first week. Initially, they thought it was a chamber and covered it with a barricade. When officials were asked to cover the hole, they found it was an underground chamber.
"I wrote to the department of heritage seeking its assistance to learn more about it. We were curious as the chamber is located close to the Gun House. But as we didn't get any reply, we thought it best to cover the chamber as it was affecting traffic movement," he said. Manjunath added, "We covered the chamber with round manhole covers and guarded it with barricades. We measured the size of the chambers and prepared a concrete cover. To our surprise, we found a similar chamber next to it. We can't rule out the presence of more chambers."
The two chambers were covered with thin concrete covers made of lime and mortar and tar was laid over it. The road had been asphalted during Dasara 2013 but a hole on the road surfaced only in May, the corporator explained.
Heritage commissioner CG Betsurmath said, "The chambers could have been created by the Maharajas of Mysore but we have to study them to figure out for what they were used. We're awaiting documents from MCC officials." He said the chambers are over 20ft deep and 3ft in width An official claimed they could be secret chambers to stock valuables and not for storing water.